Youth and Spirits
by RedAthena79
Summary: Lou and the Kid find themselves outside the saloon after more than a few drinks.


"Youth and Spirits"

Rating: T

Spoilers: "False Colors"

Summary: Lou and the Kid find themselves outside the saloon after more than few drinks.

It was dark out. Had been for a couple of hours now. The sound of raucous merriment poured muffled but constant through the cracks in the windows and the slits where the uneven boards of the saloon's walls failed to meet. Outside, oblivious to the noise, the Kid and Lou clung to their horses, gulping in the crisp night air.

She was laughing! He told a joke and Lou was laughing at it! Cody probably wouldn't have been as amused seeing as the joke was at his expense. But he was in there and the Kid was out here. Well, it wouldn't have mattered either way because it was the Kid that's made Lou laugh and –God, she was so beautiful.

The Kid stopped laughing first. Owing to the good number of feet between him and the sounds and smells of the saloon, Kid's head began to clear just a little. In that tiny moment of clarity, for it vanished nearly instantly, he realized that he could smell her again. So different from the dark, sultry scents of the women kicking up their heels inside. She smelled of horses, of dust off a trail, of good honest work. He closed his eyes—his hand clumsily clutched at the hitching post as a fresh wave of dizziness washed through him—and breathed her in. And with that breath it seemed for all the world that he was filled up to the brim with Lou and her laughter. Oh, it was wonderful and he wanted more.

Unsteadily his body swayed towards Lou and by sweet Providence his lips landed on hers. And then it was she that was holding him up with her kiss. Kid felt her hands in his hair gripping his pleasantly throbbing head. His own hands gripped soft hips through course trousers. The kiss, the whiskey, the sweet night air, they were all there swimming through him and suddenly Lou's soft lips could no longer hold him steady.

Oh, sweet Lord, he thought. It was just the opposite. He fell back blindly against the hitching post. His hands refused to surrender even a moment of contact with that which was round and giving. So there he stood, or leaned more like, with rough wood behind him, the whickering of horses to either side, and the most intoxicating of women in his arms. And from what he could hear, feel, taste, she was happy to be there. Content as he to trade kisses in the dark.

Ah, but while the lips were content the hands were not. His hands, pressing Lou firmly to the length of his body, began to drift. They slid of their own accord beneath the sturdy cotton of her shirt. Heat flashed through him as his palms made contact with silky, smooth flesh. His hands stuttered as they traveled further up her back. Her hot skin was covered with a fine layer of moisture. He was making Lou sweat! He shuddered at the thought and dragged his hands further up—

There was a gasp, then a sudden rush of movement. Light, brilliant and of every color imaginable flashed behind his closed eyelids. Lou! Lou was pressing herself so close, so perfectly close against him. One hand slid back down to clutch at the seat of her trousers. His other hand, well it simply refused to relinquish its hold on her warm, bare skin. With arms encircling her the Kid returned Lou's embrace. Nothing had ever felt more right. The lights in his head were joined by a roaring in his ears and then—

"Kid!"

--his brother's voice pierced through the red haze.

Lou moved so fast he could barely register it all. In an instant he felt her hands leave his hair to brace themselves against his chest. With a firm shove she sprang out of his embrace leaving him gasping and groping.

Jed, calling out for his brother once more, rounded the corner and stepped into view. There was a silence as the Kid watched his brother take in the scene before him. Reddened mouths and tousled hair. Clothes rumpled and pulled askew. The Kid knew exactly what it was his brother was seeing and thinking. And it was all so wrong. But what could he say? He watched mutely as Lou met Jed's eyes for the briefest of moments before she rushed red-faced back into the saloon. The look on Jed's face as he turned his gaze onto his little brother was indescribable but it demanded answers none the less.

"What in the name of-- What the hell do you think you're doing, Kid? With a boy that a- With a boy!"

The Kid drew in a deep breath trying to quell the nausea rising up in his throat. After a few moments he looked up at his brother and saw that Jed was waiting for him to answer. He couldn't. There was no way to explain what had happened out here, not without betraying Louise and her secret. Betray Lou? It would never happen. With no answers to give the Kid looked away and said, "Nothing, Jed. Nothing." And with that the Kid turned and made his way back into the noisy saloon leaving his brother outside alone in the dark.

-end-


End file.
